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Pan Roasted Night Caught Parrot Fish


Stone

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Ummm.....could it be parrot fish that's caught at night?

Well, duh.

But are they suggesting that parrot fish caught at night is better than parrot fish caught during the day? Should we expect to see menu touting "Wednesday slaughtered April 19th dusk killed lamb paired with an early-morning dew covered left-hand picked counter-clockwise peeled apple chutney"?

Edited by Stone (log)
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I caught parrot fish down in the Turks and Caicos with a rod and reel. Cooked them up too.

It was disconcerting pan frying blue green fish meat. Tasted pretty good though. Edit: I must point out that they were caught in broad daylight, so obviously they were inferior to the night caught variety.

I'd post pictures if I could figure out how on this site.

Edited by Al_Dente (log)

peak performance is predicated on proper pan preparation...

-- A.B.

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Cool.  What kind of bait did you use?  And what are those other fish waiting to be cleaned?  Triggerfish or something along those lines?

I can't recall what we were using. Hmmm... I think it might have been just chunks of spot or something.

Yeah those are triggerfish. We ate those too along with some strawberry grouper. You can see how blue-green the flesh of the parrotfish is under his hand. That was after he scaled it. The triggerfish have really tough skin. He cleaned those by cutting a little at the tail and then wrapping the skin around a screwdriver and twisting until it peeled away. I believe you can buy "leather" products made out of that stuff down there.

peak performance is predicated on proper pan preparation...

-- A.B.

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Yup.  That's what's on the menu.

"Night Caught."  Can someone explain this?

I'm surprised the "night caught" fish wasn't paired with "day boat" scallops.

Night Caught "Parrot Fish", are the easiest to spear or net, as they settle themselves up at a quiet drop off the reef. After settling in at night they cover themseves with a cover of mucilege or saliva, that appearently offers them some sort of protection from most things, except divers with lights hunting for them. They are easy prey. Often netted, and kept alive in tanks for live sale to chinese seafood restaurants. Irwin

I don't say that I do. But don't let it get around that I don't.

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wow..you just ruined the whole "night-caught" mystique for me.

now i realize it's kinda like shooting fish in a barrel.

Shooting fish in a barrel seems ordinary, yes. But fish, in a barrel, with mucilage is not to be missed, I think.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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NIGHT CAUGHT PARROT FISH AND DAY BOAT SCALLOPS

Mucilage, reproductive fluids

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Stone,

Double duh :raz:.

Al, those are great photos. I've been wanting to go to T&C for a few years, but we never seem to be able to get it together. The snorkelling must be spectacular. Been to Anguilla a couple of times and one of my favorite dishes is trigger fish prepared in the local style.

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Stone,

Double duh  :raz:.

Al, those are great photos. I've been wanting to go to T&C for a few years, but we never seem to be able to get it together. The snorkelling must be spectacular.  Been to Anguilla a couple of times and one of my favorite dishes is trigger fish prepared in the local style.

It is a beautiful set of islands. It was a family reunion trip of sorts. Stayed at a condo with a kitchen-- it had horrible cooking supplies though. I fried up the fish in the thinnest teflon coated pan I've ever seen. The teflon was coming off and the electric burner was impossible to control. Smoke everywhere.

We stayed near Providenciales where you would take a $20 each way 5-min cab ride to the TREMENDOUSLY expensive grocery store. Bag of Doritos? $5. Six pack of lousy beer? $12

The fishing trip included a couple of hours of spectacular snorkeling. If I ever go back, I think I'll get certified to dive. The guy who was cleaning the fish shared a recipe with me for the triggerfish. Basically it was just dredging the fillets in flour, pan fry, remove the fish and drain the pan. Then add garlic, tomato paste, and whatever liquid you want-- I think I used white wine. Simple and good enough (given the lack of available ingredients) so we gave it a try.

peak performance is predicated on proper pan preparation...

-- A.B.

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I spent a week at the Club Med there. Kind of gross, but $50 to play the golf course, which was beautiful.

Can we turn this discussion back to "Night Caught Parrot Fish and Day Boat Scallops" please?

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